The Swedish National
Committee for the celebration of the International Year of Volunteers
has now been established. It was done yesterday (7/2 2001) at a meeting
in Stockholm.

The UN IYV is focused
on all the people who give of their time and commitment, without any
remuneration. At the centre stands the individual and his/hers needs
for a coherent context and for the possibility to play a meaningful
role in society.

The Swedish Committee
has the following aims:

To highlight the celebration of the IYV in Sweden

To prepare and facilitate a good programme during the year, including
the creation of the necessary funds to do it

Recommending state action for reaching the goals of the IYV in
our country

"Now we have
to identify what the most necessary national activities are that we
can focus on, to facilitate the celebration. But we also have to reach
out to all the local branches of the organizations since that is where
almost all the volunteer work is being done. We hope that they will
take this opportunity to show the public what a fantastic chance it
is to work as a volunteer, how much happiness you meet, what you can
learn etc. The YIV in Sweden will focus heavily on the individual person
and the power that lies in his/her commitment." This says Ludvig
Sandberg who is the chairperson of the National Committee.

Ludvig Sandberg
continues: "We
were able to get some organizations as full members of the Committee
yesterday. Many more organizations are now going to get a mandate to
get involved as full members at the next meeting. I hope that even more
organizations will join in during the year. We see the celebration as
a frame work to which many already planned activities can be linked
up. The more organizations that choose to link their public activities
to the celebration the better!